No impropriety over fugitive: MOFA

Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials yesterday denied media allegations that two representative offices in Europe acted unlawfully by issuing fugitive murder suspect Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) with legal documentation on two separate occasions.

"It was not improper for overseas representative offices to authenticate a certificate of appointment related to the Civil Code filed by Wang," said ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) yesterday.

The Economic and Cultural Delegation of Taipei office in Geneva authenticated a certificate of appointment in July 2001 by which Wang named a lawyer to represent him in Taiwan. The Taipei Representative Office in the UK in London did the same last month.

The certificate of appointment had been certified by Swiss judicial authorities, officials said.

Nothing in the Public Certification Law (公證法) or regulations governing the handling of certification by overseas consular officials prohibits officials from issuing authentication and certification documents to fugitives, Shih said.

He also denied a report by a Chinese-language newspaper that "a high-ranking foreign ministry official" had facilitated the rapid processing of Wang's paperwork at both offices.

Shih noted that Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) was not in office when Wang's Swiss lawyer appeared at the Geneva office in July 2001 to apply for the document on Wang's behalf.

Wang, an arms dealer suspected of being deeply involved in the corruption-tainted sale of French Lafayette frigates to Taipei in the 1990s, is wanted in connection with the death of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓).

An arrest warrant for Wang was issued in September 2000. He has not been seen in this country since shortly after the December 1993 murder of Yin.

Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷), who was chief of the Geneva office at the time, said his recent promotion to be director general of the ministry's Department of International Organizations was "unrelated" to his handling of Wang's documentation.

While Tung made two telephone calls and sent two telegrams to the ministry before authenticating Wang's document in 2001, officials at the London office issued their authentication after an internal discussion but did not consult the ministry, officials said.

Officials confirmed that Wang had appeared with his son and a lawyer at the London office on Feb. 5 to apply for an authentication document.

TSU lawmakers who attended a closed-door briefing by Chien on the ministry's handling of the Wang-paperwork issue yesterday accused the ministry of mishandling the incident. They asked Chien to punish the relevant officials.

But legal experts such as Judicial Reform Foundation executive-general Shirley Lin (林靜 ) defended the ministry's actions.

"While Wang is wanted on suspicion of murder, he remains only a suspect, having not been convicted," Lin said.

"As long as he is a citizen, he is entitled to a citizen's rights, including applying for certification documents at the country's overseas representative offices," she said.

Ministry officials say they have been hampered in their efforts to trace Wang by the lack of diplomatic ties and extradition or judicial-assistance agreements between London and Taipei.

Shih said that an official in the London office had contacted the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office one day after issuing Wang's documentation to seek London's help in tracing the fugitive.